The Doctor is In!
I realize I'm a day late (though hopefully not a dollar short...) on this one, but it took all freaking night for Partners in Crime to d/l, so there we are. So here's my reaction post. With the exception of a few posts in the TWOP forums, I haven't read any other reaction stuff. After reading those posts, I realized I wanted to get my thoughts written down free of influence from other peoples' opinions. At least at first.
That being said, I'm of course going to respond to a few accusations that I kept seeing (and have seen around and about, too) being leveled at the show in general and a few specific issues folks seemed to have with this episode.
First of all, I should say, loved it. It was a good episode, well-paced and snappy, funny and serious in the right measures, with the right amount of attention paid to character development and plot respectively (read: more attention paid to character development than to the plot). The Adipose (Adiposes? Adiposii?) were cute, superevilnanny was suitably sinister (though problematic if we were to do a feminist reading of this episode, which I'm not right now (but feel free in comments if you want!)), and I loved the sequences where Donna and the Doctor kept missing each other. For comedy, love the scene in the office, when they keep popping up above the cubicles alternately; for seriousness, the shot of the two of them walking off in opposite directions after chasing after the Adipose collection vehicle thingy. I'll do a little more meta on this later, after I watch it again, but on one level this episode was really all about not seeing the thing that's right in front of you, and that shot really dramatized that.
Meanwhile, reactions to stuff on the TWOP threads, because that's what I'm thinking about today:
Martha
Folks at the TWOP forums had big problems with the way that the Doctor talked about his relationship with Martha, especially when he tells Donna, "She fancied me." The reading there (in, I should add, only a handful of posts out of like 50 pages of discussion, so I'm sure somewhere over there got a more nuanced interpretation. This is just mine.) The reading over there was that he was belittling Martha's love for him, that this was a throwaway comment saying only what he was saying on the surface, namely, "Haha, she fancied me, isn't that funny?" At some level, of course, that is what he's saying. But in light of what he says to Donna earlier--"I ruined half her life"--that isn't all he's saying. Martha made a great number of sacrifices because she loved the Doctor; he knows that. Moreover, her whole family got dragged into what was essentially a personal conflict between the Doctor and the Master, the consequences of which Martha was the one to unravel, and it was her love for him that allowed him to do that. And the Doctor took advantage of that. He asked Martha to travel the world, knowing that she would do so out of love for him and knowing that he would never love her back in the same way. This isn't meant to imply that there weren't good reasons for him to ask her to do so, or that she did it only out of love for him (world ending and all). The truth is she knew as well as he did that he couldn't love her the way she wanted him to, and she did it anyway.
So when the Doctor says to Donna, jokingly, "She fancied me," he's speaking in more than one register. He "ruined half her life," remember? He's not only saying, "haha, isn't that funny?", he's also saying to Donna, "She loved me, and I couldn't love her back; she loved me, and I let her get hurt." Possibly also, "She loved me, and I wasn't worth it. I'm still not." And in this episode I think we saw a whole lot of growth from him in that respect. In those various exchanges--"I ruined half her life"; "She fancied me"; and, at the end, "I just want a mate"--he's being up front with Donna about what she can expect, and about what he expects, from their relationship. He's setting the boundaries explicitly. Because the biggest problem with the whole Martha unrequited love story, (strictly from a character standpoint) is that the Doctor knew she loved him, and he knew he didn't (couldn't, wouldn't) love her back (like that), and they eventually came to an understanding, but they never talked about it, not until the very end, when Martha finally said, "I'm getting out, and here's why." Their understanding was built on a great deal of hurt, of Martha having to accept his continued rejection without any real apology or explanation. With Martha, at some level, I think the Doctor wanted her to love him; he wanted that level of affection, even though he couldn't reciprocate. He wanted to be loved, by anyone. And of course he came to care for Martha for who she is (brilliant, resourceful, strong--I really did love Martha as a companion), but I think this, right here, is the Doctor growing a great deal, because right at the beginning he's saying to Donna that he wants her because of who she is, because she likes her, but he's setting the terms up front, and giving her a chance to do the same. There's a certain amount of fairness there that wasn't there with Martha.
Rose
This was the other biggie. Because, zomg! I didn't see that coming, not this early in the season (I have, of course, been studiously avoiding the lj comms because I don't want to be inadvertently spoiled. I'm glad I did, because, whoa! Alone in my room, I looked around and said, "Wait, what?") Anyway this is more of a commentary on a general sense of dissatisfaction I've seen and heard about how S3 was in many ways a long year of mourning Rose. I'm probably in the minority of people who think that her continued presence/absence in the series--the Doctor's continued grief for her--is a good thing. Not necessarily because I think Rose was So Wonderful and Fantastic that she deserves so much attention, but because, well, it's realistic. I haven't watched the old series, but I have the sense that the Doctor kind of just picked up and dropped off companions without a lot of attention being paid to the emotional fallout. (Someone, please, correct me on this if necessary. It's just a general impression I have based on very little evidence. One day soon I'll get around to watching the earlier series.) I thought S3 was richer for the added emotional complexity.
Another reason that I have for not minding the continued Rose angst is that it this point, in my mind, it isn't about Rose anymore. Or it isn't only about Rose; rather, it's about the fantasy of Rose, the fantasy of their relationship and the illusion of wholeness that that fantasy bestows. Beyond that, it's also about Gallifrey. Rose was the first person the Doctor got close to after he destroyed his homeworld; so losing her so quickly, so completely, not only plunges him into a very dark place, but also entwines the two. The loss of Rose has been grafted onto the loss of Gallifrey, and so he experiences both with an emotional intensity that may be a bit disproportionate. And, again, it's less about the thing itself at this point than it is about the fantasy. We know that Gallifrey wasn't perfect--he certainly knows that--so it's about the fantasy of home, which is, of course, something you never really have, and something you never get back once you've lost it. It's all just a fantasy.
My hope for this season: If/when we have a Rose/Doctor reunion, it accounts for that fantasy element. Time has passed; they've both changed. When they were together, everything was about Rose and the Doctor, just the two of them, really. (Rose was always trying to shut her family out, wasn't she?) This is a weird thing to want, but I hope that the reunion is...well, disappointing. For them. Because they can't get back what they lost. They never really had it to begin with.
That being said, I'm of course going to respond to a few accusations that I kept seeing (and have seen around and about, too) being leveled at the show in general and a few specific issues folks seemed to have with this episode.
First of all, I should say, loved it. It was a good episode, well-paced and snappy, funny and serious in the right measures, with the right amount of attention paid to character development and plot respectively (read: more attention paid to character development than to the plot). The Adipose (Adiposes? Adiposii?) were cute, superevilnanny was suitably sinister (though problematic if we were to do a feminist reading of this episode, which I'm not right now (but feel free in comments if you want!)), and I loved the sequences where Donna and the Doctor kept missing each other. For comedy, love the scene in the office, when they keep popping up above the cubicles alternately; for seriousness, the shot of the two of them walking off in opposite directions after chasing after the Adipose collection vehicle thingy. I'll do a little more meta on this later, after I watch it again, but on one level this episode was really all about not seeing the thing that's right in front of you, and that shot really dramatized that.
Meanwhile, reactions to stuff on the TWOP threads, because that's what I'm thinking about today:
Martha
Folks at the TWOP forums had big problems with the way that the Doctor talked about his relationship with Martha, especially when he tells Donna, "She fancied me." The reading there (in, I should add, only a handful of posts out of like 50 pages of discussion, so I'm sure somewhere over there got a more nuanced interpretation. This is just mine.) The reading over there was that he was belittling Martha's love for him, that this was a throwaway comment saying only what he was saying on the surface, namely, "Haha, she fancied me, isn't that funny?" At some level, of course, that is what he's saying. But in light of what he says to Donna earlier--"I ruined half her life"--that isn't all he's saying. Martha made a great number of sacrifices because she loved the Doctor; he knows that. Moreover, her whole family got dragged into what was essentially a personal conflict between the Doctor and the Master, the consequences of which Martha was the one to unravel, and it was her love for him that allowed him to do that. And the Doctor took advantage of that. He asked Martha to travel the world, knowing that she would do so out of love for him and knowing that he would never love her back in the same way. This isn't meant to imply that there weren't good reasons for him to ask her to do so, or that she did it only out of love for him (world ending and all). The truth is she knew as well as he did that he couldn't love her the way she wanted him to, and she did it anyway.
So when the Doctor says to Donna, jokingly, "She fancied me," he's speaking in more than one register. He "ruined half her life," remember? He's not only saying, "haha, isn't that funny?", he's also saying to Donna, "She loved me, and I couldn't love her back; she loved me, and I let her get hurt." Possibly also, "She loved me, and I wasn't worth it. I'm still not." And in this episode I think we saw a whole lot of growth from him in that respect. In those various exchanges--"I ruined half her life"; "She fancied me"; and, at the end, "I just want a mate"--he's being up front with Donna about what she can expect, and about what he expects, from their relationship. He's setting the boundaries explicitly. Because the biggest problem with the whole Martha unrequited love story, (strictly from a character standpoint) is that the Doctor knew she loved him, and he knew he didn't (couldn't, wouldn't) love her back (like that), and they eventually came to an understanding, but they never talked about it, not until the very end, when Martha finally said, "I'm getting out, and here's why." Their understanding was built on a great deal of hurt, of Martha having to accept his continued rejection without any real apology or explanation. With Martha, at some level, I think the Doctor wanted her to love him; he wanted that level of affection, even though he couldn't reciprocate. He wanted to be loved, by anyone. And of course he came to care for Martha for who she is (brilliant, resourceful, strong--I really did love Martha as a companion), but I think this, right here, is the Doctor growing a great deal, because right at the beginning he's saying to Donna that he wants her because of who she is, because she likes her, but he's setting the terms up front, and giving her a chance to do the same. There's a certain amount of fairness there that wasn't there with Martha.
Rose
This was the other biggie. Because, zomg! I didn't see that coming, not this early in the season (I have, of course, been studiously avoiding the lj comms because I don't want to be inadvertently spoiled. I'm glad I did, because, whoa! Alone in my room, I looked around and said, "Wait, what?") Anyway this is more of a commentary on a general sense of dissatisfaction I've seen and heard about how S3 was in many ways a long year of mourning Rose. I'm probably in the minority of people who think that her continued presence/absence in the series--the Doctor's continued grief for her--is a good thing. Not necessarily because I think Rose was So Wonderful and Fantastic that she deserves so much attention, but because, well, it's realistic. I haven't watched the old series, but I have the sense that the Doctor kind of just picked up and dropped off companions without a lot of attention being paid to the emotional fallout. (Someone, please, correct me on this if necessary. It's just a general impression I have based on very little evidence. One day soon I'll get around to watching the earlier series.) I thought S3 was richer for the added emotional complexity.
Another reason that I have for not minding the continued Rose angst is that it this point, in my mind, it isn't about Rose anymore. Or it isn't only about Rose; rather, it's about the fantasy of Rose, the fantasy of their relationship and the illusion of wholeness that that fantasy bestows. Beyond that, it's also about Gallifrey. Rose was the first person the Doctor got close to after he destroyed his homeworld; so losing her so quickly, so completely, not only plunges him into a very dark place, but also entwines the two. The loss of Rose has been grafted onto the loss of Gallifrey, and so he experiences both with an emotional intensity that may be a bit disproportionate. And, again, it's less about the thing itself at this point than it is about the fantasy. We know that Gallifrey wasn't perfect--he certainly knows that--so it's about the fantasy of home, which is, of course, something you never really have, and something you never get back once you've lost it. It's all just a fantasy.
My hope for this season: If/when we have a Rose/Doctor reunion, it accounts for that fantasy element. Time has passed; they've both changed. When they were together, everything was about Rose and the Doctor, just the two of them, really. (Rose was always trying to shut her family out, wasn't she?) This is a weird thing to want, but I hope that the reunion is...well, disappointing. For them. Because they can't get back what they lost. They never really had it to begin with.